Game Boy Color

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Game Boy Color
[[File:Game Boy Color.jpg|230px]]
Manufacturer Nintendo
Generation Fifth generation
Release date October 21, 1998 (JP)

November 18, 1998 (NA)
November 23, 1998 (PAL)
November 27, 1998 (AUS)

Media type ROM cartridge
Predecessor Game Boy
Successor Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Color (ゲームボーイカラー), sometimes referred as GBC, is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo and released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 18, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in Australia. It is the successor of the original Game Boy.

The Game Boy Color, as suggested by the name, features a color screen. It is slightly thicker and taller than the Game Boy Pocket, which is a redesigned Game Boy released in 1996. As with the original Game Boy, it has an 8-bit processor.

The Game Boy Color was a response to pressure from game developers for a new and much more sophisticated system of playing, as they felt that the Game Boy, was insufficient. The resultant product was backward compatible, a first for a handheld system, and leveraged the large library of games and great installed base of the predecessor system. This became a major feature of the Game Boy line, since it allowed each new launch to begin with a significantly larger library than any of its competitors.

Hardware

Technical Specifications
Processor Sharp Corporation LR35902, 8-bit @ 4/8 MHz (two processor modes)
Memory 32 kB
Video 16 kB VRAM
Display
  • Resolution: 160 x 144 pixels
  • Palette colors available: 32,768 (15-bit)
  • Colors on screen: Supports 10, 32 or 56
  • Maximum sprites: 40 total, 10 per line, 4 colors per sprite (one transparent)
  • Sprite size: 8x8 or 8x16
  • Tiles on screen: 512 (360~399 visible, rest are off-screen as a scrolling buffer)
Audio 2 square wave channels, 1 wave channel, 1 noise channel, mono speaker, stereo headphone jack
Controller
  • 8-way D-pad
  • 4 buttons (A, B, Start, Select)
I/O ports
  • Serial I/O ("Link cable"): 512 kbit/s with up to 4 connections in serial
  • Infra-red I/O: Less than 2 m distance at 45°
  • Cartridge I/O
Media ROM Cartridge (8MB maximum) + Cartridge RAM: 128 kB
Weight -
Dimensions 75 mm x 27 mm x 133 mm
Power Internal: 2 AA batteries, 30+ hours of gameplay
External: 3V DC 0.6W